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0 pointsscarface745y ago0 comments

This is in no way a “both sides” argument. None of the other Presidents actually encouraged the wild conspiracy theories.

When McClain was running for President and one of his supporters started the “birther” bullshit, McCain shut them down. People insist on claiming that what the crazies (the subset not saying all Republicans are crazy) are doing in the modern Republican Party is normal politics. Neither Bush, McCain, Romney or any of the serious Republican candidates for President in 2016 were anywhere near this unhinged.

Edit:

I still don’t understand how it is controversial to say that neither traditional Democrat or Republicans are anything like this. Which side takes this as a negative?

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2 comments · 1 top-level

hindsightbias5y ago· 1 in thread

Where did all those traditional Republicans go?

It’s a bit like my southerner friends with Battle Flag bumperstickers calling themselves members of the party of Lincoln.

api5y ago

Same place as the sorts of Democrats who want infrastructure projects and moon shots: they're not getting elected. A Qanon nut just beat out a former neurosurgeon in a Republican primary in Georgia.

We do in fact live in a democracy. It's a dysfunctional one, but it is one. The people get what the people elect.

P.S. In many ways primaries are more critical than main elections. This is particularly true in states that lean strongly toward one party or the other. In that case the primary is the election.

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